Reid Presley started the art of Tae Kwon Do in November of 2001 at the age of 6. At such a young age Reid was not your typical 6 year old in that he had natural technique. Reid was a member of Bartlett TKD in Memphis, TN where he was trained by Jason Warren who was one of the instructors and who also coached the Memphis Xtreme Team Competition and Demo Team. Reid was
home schooled so he usually attended day classes and also attended a few evening classes as well. At the beginning of 2002 Reid's dad, Ronnie, was interested in getting him into tournaments. He approached Warren about it and Warren invited Reid to try some of the team practices and then Reid became a part of the team. At that time the team was competing in local and regional competitions. 

By the end of that year Reid and his dad were becoming bored with competitions as they weren't very competitive. By the beginning of 2003 Warren was putting the team on a regional circuit (RSKC) and they also would attend some NASKA competitions as well. This caught Ronnie's attention as it would definitely be more competitive than what they were getting. Warren always gave his team private lessons and it was then that Ronnie approached Warren about getting Reid a couple of lessons a week. 

Ronnie felt that Reid would be a talented martial artist and knew that with just the regular class workout and even the team practices Reid was not being pushed to his full potential. About a month after working with Reid, Warren new that he had a future world champion on his hands. His first project with Reid was getting him to be more assertive, as Reid was quite shy and to relaxed. Reid quickly showed his true potential at the competitions and quickly surpassed his toughest competitors. Reid attended the Bluegrass Nationals and Battle Of
Atlanta that year and dominated each of his divisions. 

At the start of 2004 Reid continued with the RSKC circuit, where he finished the year as the Triple Crown Winner, along with attending 3 of major NASKA events where he also won several of his divisions. In April, Reid won the AAU Missouri state championships which qualified him for the Junior Olympic Games which was held in Des Moines, IA. Reid came away with a Gold medal in forms and Silver medal in fighting. Reid is a well rounded competitor in that he competes in traditional and musical forms, traditional and musical weapons, and fighting. When extra time is available Reid also attends tumbling lessons. In August of 2004, Reid's family moved to St. Louis, MO for a job transfer for Ronnie. Ronnie is one of the manager's for Hogan Transports and he hired Warren, so Warren made the move as well. Now with both Reid and Warren living in St. Louis Warren looked at it as an opportunity to expose Reid to the teachings of Terry Creamer, former NASKA Triple Crown Winner. Reid's trains at Creamer's Karate once a week where he works mostly on fighting. In December, 2004, Reid received his black belt so there was a lot to look forward to for the next year. 

At the start of 2005 it was decided that Reid, again, would continue with RSKC where he again won Triple Crown and never lost a division. He would also attend 8 of the major NASKA events, which was rough coming in as a nobody and a brand new black belt. He was not a seeded competitor and nobody had ever heard of Reid in the black belt division and at the time was not on a team, as most of his competitors were. 

But at the Compete Nationals Reid came away with 3 second places and we were quite surprised. Reid continued to perform very well through the rest of the year with NASKA and we knew he would just have to establish who he was. At the last 4 events of the NASKA season Reid started winning some of his divisions and was in the runoffs every time for his musical weapons and traditional Bo routine. At the AKA Grand Nationals Reid accomplished one of his goals which was to make it on stage in the finals where he almost won but lost to Megan McKenzie. 

One thing most people notice about Reid is he gets better and better every time but is also a very humble person. Reid has trained with such names as: Terry Creamer, Jadi Tention, Reggie Perry, Nate Andrade, Matt Emig, and John Sharkey just to name a few. Reid has just turned 10 so we know it will get harder this coming year but don't count him out because he will be training hard and you will see more of him.